John Tyler

Thursday

Mar 16, 2017 at 11:59 AMMar 16, 2017 at 11:59 AM

Background/Early Life• Like his predecessor, John Tyler was born in Virginia and was the son of a man who would serve as Virginia’s governor.• Tyler became a prominent lawyer and began his political career in the Virginia House of Delegates. He served in the War of 1812, and afterward began his career in Washington as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.• After leaving Congress because of disagreements with certain policies — especially surrounding slavery, an issue he did not think the government should become involved in — Tyler returned as a U.S. Senator.• Tyler’s position on slavery made him popular in the South, and as a result he was chosen to be half of the “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!” ticket for the presidency in the 1840 election.How he defined the office• Simply by taking the oath of office — Tyler became the first vice president to succeed to the presidency after the death of a president. • The Constitution was not exactly clear on a succession process. Tyler asserted immediately that he had the full powers of the office, setting a precedent that has been followed for the century-and-a-half-plus since.• Tyler was also, at age 51, the youngest man to that point to hold the office of president.• Another first for Tyler was that after his wife died in 1842, Tyler remarried two years later, becoming the first president to marry while in office.Successes and failures• Tyler kept in place President Harrison’s entire cabinet, which included many men who believed they should have become president instead of Tyler. After he twice vetoed a bill looking to bring back the Bank of the United States, his entire cabinet (besides the secretary of state) resigned in protest.• Tyler established a relationship with China that resulted in similar trading rights with the country that the British had.• Just before Tyler left office two notable events occurred: He passed an annexation bill for Texas, which had declared its independence from Mexico, through Congress. Three days before leaving office Tyler signed the Texas statehood bill into law. Sealing the rocky relationship Tyler had with Congress throughout his presidency, on his last day in office Congress overrode a Tyler veto of a bill that would fund small ships for the government. That was the first time Congress had overridden a presidential veto in the country’s history.notable quote• “If the tide of defamation and abuse shall turn, and my administration come to be praised, future Vice-Presidents who may succeed to the Presidency may feel some slight encouragement to pursue an independent course.”